From Nerd Rap To Twee Folk - This Week's The Buzz

Posted on 21 May 10

The Buzz is the magazine’s weekly rundown of artists, scenes, labels and tracks breaking forth from the underground this week

1. Aloe Blacc’s ‘I Need A Dollar’
It’s easy to forget that hip-hop wasn’t always a competition to see whose racing yacht had landed the best soft drink endorsement. Here, nerd-rap Mecca Stonesthrow continues its recent mainstream assault with the viralistic debut from Los Angeles soul boy Aloe Blacc. Like an adolescent Curtis Mayfield struck by a stifling case of the ‘why are we heres?’, the label’s unmistakable taut underground rhythms are splayed with an outpouring of cyncism at the scene/world’s obsession with the green stuff.[Myspace]

2. Kisses Remixes
But a month ago Jesse Kivel was just the Colgate-grinning guitarist in swoonsome LA sunbeam-pop brigade Princeton. May ’10: Jesse’s also one of the most sought-after remixers around after his Erlend-Øye-In-A-Maroon-Crushed-Velvet-Smoking-Jacket debut ‘Bermuda’ crashed onto Blogland like a meteorite doused in Brut. [Myspace]

3. We Are The World
When Radar caught them live it was blown away by everything about WATW, except their tunes. They’re doing stuff stylistically no other dance-pop troupe are venturing near. But things have now been toe-punted into overdrive for them since Gaga caught them live and tweeted their new video to single ‘Clay Stones’. Have a gander.[Myspace]

5. Popical Island
Adorable cottage industry alert! Dublin’s Popical island is a night-cum-label with the mission statement of uniting the Irish capital’s fragmented shmindie masses with a premise of being “like Waterworld meets The Sound Of Music’. Within its ranks are the crepe-paper-pop of The Yeh Deadlies and twee-folksters The Walpurgis Family.[Myspace]